Telecom news

• Heritage Open Days opening thousands of doors to the public

  28-07-2021 13:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Over a couple of weeks in September, several thousand buildings will open their doors to the public.
  This is the Heritage Open Days, a fortnight of open days that’s essentially the same thing as Open House London, but (largely) happens outside London.
  All are free, some need booking in advance, otherwise, just turn up on the day.
  The list below is of the venues in the counties around London (and a couple inside) that look interesting places to visit and are generally not open to the public
  
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• The London Buzz – 29th Sept 2026

  29-09-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Old London – Station Parade on Horn Lane in Acton
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Wandsworth Council took four months to visit a tenant after she complained about a lack of heating in her temporary accommodation, a watchdog has found. Putney SW15
  Lord Sadiq Khan’s move to bring some London buses back into public ownership for the first time in 30 years has triggered a heated political row. Standard
  A Metropolitan Police officer has become the first person to be charged as a resul
  
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• Tickets Alert: Barbican ghost tours of their empty library and The Pit

  29-09-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The Barbican is hoping for concrete evidence of the supernatural this autumn as it launches its first Ghost Tours of the arts centre.
  (c) Barbican arts centre
  Expanding on their existing architecture tours, the Barbican Ghost Tours will take visitors on a journey through nearly two thousand years of history, exploring legends of Roman ruins, plague pits and staff ghost stories.
  The 75-minute tour journeys through the highwalks and subterranean corridors of the Barbican, taking in the empty Libra
  
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• Tickets Alert: Halloween-themed tours of Clapham’s WWII tunnels

  29-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Eleven floors beneath Clapham Common, a wartime shelter is preparing to tell a few ghost stories.The London Transport Museum is launching its first Halloween-themed Hidden London tour, taking visitors through the Clapham South WWII shelter’s deserted tunnels with accounts of wartime life, Underground legends and supernatural experiences reported by railway staff.
  The tours will use lighting, sound, projections and guides in character to lead visitors through the shelter. The route includes
  
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• HS2 solves the Elizabeth line’s step-free problem at Old Oak Common station

  29-09-2026 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Elizabeth line passengers will be able to board trains at Old Oak Common without the usual step up from the platform, after the government approved a redesign that lowers the tracks serving the station’s four Elizabeth line platforms.
  Old Oak Common surface platforms concept image (c) HS2
  Conventionally, national rail platforms are set to a standard height above the rails of 915mm, to allow for a wide range of trains to be able to use them – from passenger to freight to engineering.
  
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• Apollo and Oaktree sue Patrick Drahi over US telco restructuring

  29-09-2026 13:42 via ft.com
  Bondholders argue billionaire is liable for ‘brazen’ plan to move Optimum Communications’ most valuable cable TV assets out of reach
  
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• White porcelain sculptures invade the Wallace Collection

  29-09-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A collection of bright white porcelain sculptures has appeared in the Wallace Collection’s richly decorated galleries, their twisting forms contrasting in rooms filled with Old Master paintings, gilded furniture, and decorative arts.These are nine works by the ceramic artist Rachel Kneebone, including two made for the installation and shown for the first time.
  Kneebone’s sculptures use a material often associated with smooth, perfect objects, but their forms are crowded and restless.
  
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• Improved ticket gate access complete for Peckham Rye station

  29-09-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Although Peckham Rye station’s main upgrade is on hold, Network Rail has carried out some modest improvements to the station, including a wider ticket gateline.
  The gateline had four barriers, but during busy times the station often ended up with queues on both sides. This has now been widened to six gates. It’s not the huge upgrade that was planned, but as a retailer might say – every little helps.
  July 2026 (c) ianVisits
  September 2026 (c) ianVisits
  In addition, new passenger
  
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• Oxford Street pedestrianisation to start from late October

  28-09-2026 20:50 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The date that road traffic will be banned from a large section of Oxford Street has been announced – as Monday 26th October 2026.From that date, almost a kilometre of Oxford Street will be pedestrianised, from Orchard Street to Great Portland Street. From then, buses, taxis, bikes and other vehicles will be diverted onto nearby roads, which will be monitored to ensure traffic moves effectively during the transition.
  Pedestrian areas overlay on OpenStreet Maps, with gaps for the north-south
  
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• The London Buzz – 28th Sept 2026

  28-09-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Olde London – Electric Avenue, Brixton
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Banana trees that were adopted ten years ago by a day centre for people living with advanced dementia have produced fruit for the first time this summer. Tower Hamlets Council
  The Prince of Wales pub in Putney has been named the borough’s best business in bloom at the Wandsworth in Bloom awards last week. Putney News
  Major disruption to last all day at London Victoria after fire near tracks Metro
  Inside Met Po
  
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• Fresh dates announced for lunches in the City’s grand Livery Halls

  28-09-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  If you fancy lunch in one of the City of London’s livery halls, it’s possible.
  Livery Halls are usually only open to members or hired out for events, but Butchers, Founders and Watermen offer semi-regular public lunches in their halls.
  Note: They generally have a smart dress code.
  Ironmongers’ Hall (c) ianVisits
  Butchers’ Hall
  A carvery lunch with three courses. Guests are welcomed with a drink reception from 12:15pm on the Ground Floor, before ascending to the Great Hall
  
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• Great British Railways to rethink how new trains are paid for

  28-09-2026 16:40 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The government is considering buying new trains for public ownership instead of routinely leasing them from private companies, after rail operators spent £2.7 billion on train leases in a year.Since rail privatisation, most passenger trains have been owned by rolling stock companies, known as ROSCOs, and leased to the operators that run them. Under its new rolling stock and infrastructure strategy, Great British Railways (GBR) will assess public ownership, leasing and other financing
  
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• Apax nears deal to buy Warburg Pincus out of €6.5bn telecoms group Odido

  26-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Purchase would follow private equity owners’ decision to shelve planned listing of Dutch operator due to market instability
  
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• The London Buzz – 25th Sept 2026

  25-09-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Old London – Beckenham High Street / Church Hill in 1979
  Today’s London news round-up:
  A theatre-goer fell victim to a “sophisticated phishing attack” after booking a “luxury” London apartment, only to discover the address was a Wetherspoon pub. BBC News
  ‘Unless the Greens get a grip, government will step in’: Lib Dem warning as Lambeth faces £10m overspend Brixton Buzz
  E-bike vandalism at Shire golf course leads to closure of entry points to
  
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• TfL to run London bus routes again for first time since 2009

  25-09-2026 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Transport for London (TfL) will run bus routes again for the first time since 2009, starting with Route 6 between Willesden and Victoria in late 2027.You might be surprised to learn that TfL is running a bus service, as many people assume it already does. In fact, although London’s bus network is publicly planned and controlled, eight private companies provide the buses under contract. TfL’s new company, Buses for London (BfL), will give TfL a way to run a small number of those servi
  
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• Free exhibition inside the RNLI’s Thames lifeboat station

  25-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  For a few days, there is a chance to go into the RNLI’s riverside base in central London and see a small but quite fascinating exhibition.The exhibition mainly features paintings from the RNLI’s archive, showing the range and variety of lifeboat stations along the UK’s coastline, along with archive drawings by their architects.
  As a collection, it’s both arty but also educational, as you get to learn about how early lifeboat buildings were designed with ecclesiastical des
  
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• Old masters meet surrealists in a free Marylebone exhibition

  25-09-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A wide-ranging collection of artworks, from old masters to modern, has been gathered in an exhibition that is, well, quite eclectic.The collection, which ranges from paintings by Hendrick Goltzius to Salvador Dalí, has been interspersed with modern works by the gallery owner, Glenn Brown.
  Glenn Brown’s work is very marmite and of a certain taste, but collecting a range of other artists and putting them on display around his work gives the visitor a chance to see usually private work
  
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• A once-in-a-lifetime bloom is coming to Kew Gardens

  25-09-2026 10:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Kew Gardens is advising people to stand by for a rare flowering of a giant Agave montana as it prepares its one bloom in its life.
  Anna Lim, Botanical Horticulturist with Agave montana – Photo Sebastian Kettley (c) RBG Kew
  The A. montana, which is native to the mountainous habitats of northeastern Mexico and sits in Kew’s Rock Garden next to Davies Alpine House, has produced an asparagus-like stalk (called a peduncle) growing at a rate of 10cm a day and is now measuring more than 2 m
  
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• Restoration secured for London pipe organ smuggled out of France in 1904

  24-09-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A rare pipe organ in west London that was smuggled out of France more than a century ago is to be restored after a Hammersmith school secured nearly £248,000 in National Lottery funding.
  (c) Sacred Heart High School
  The grant will allow Hammersmith-based Sacred Heart High School to press ahead with restoring the only known pipe organ in the UK built by the 19th-century Belgian organ maker Hippolyte Loret.
  The school has raised £327,815 towards the project, which will also support edu
  
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• RMT Union opens its magazine archive to everyone

  24-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The RMT Union has made the past two decades of its members’ magazine available online for free, open to all to read.The RMT News Archive currently contains 194 editions and more than 3,900 indexed articles dating from 2004 to the present day, providing an alternative view of transport issues from the side you might have read in transport organisations’ own communications.
  Instead of searching through individual magazine PDFs, you can also search the entire collection by keyword, name
  
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• Pictures released of the railway bridge removal near Watford

  24-09-2026 12:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Over the past weekend, Network Rail carried out an urgent removal of a bridge over the railway near Watford.
  Oxhey Grange footbridge removal (c) Network Rail
  The Oxhey Grange footbridge crosses the railway line to the south of Bushey station and had already been earmarked for replacement because of its condition. However, Network Rail says routine inspections revealed it had deteriorated faster than expected and required urgent intervention. Engineers eventually decided it had to be removed as s
  
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• Friday lunchtime performances at the Royal Opera House

  23-09-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  It’s not that well known outside the usual circles, but the Royal Opera House puts on occasional lunchtime performances.
  Paul Hamlyn Hall (c) ianVisits
  Artists from The Royal Opera, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, The Royal Ballet, and a range of guest artists perform at the Royal Opera House roughly twice a month on Friday lunchtimes – and tickets cost just £5 per person.
  They used to be free, but you had to risk a long queue and not getting in. Now they charge a fiver
  
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• Tickets Alert: Nightime drone show coming to Lord’s Cricket Ground

  23-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Lord’s Cricket Ground will open to the public one evening in November as it hosts a new night-time drone show.
  (c) Wild
  The event, WILD: The Drone Light Show, will mark London’s first feature-length drone light show and the first event of its kind to be staged at the Home of Cricket. Launched in 2015, WILD follows a series of successful touring drone shows from Yuup and Celestial, including A Christmas Carol and Evolution. Since launching the UK’s first ticketed touring drone l
  
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• Plans move forward for new London Overground route across west London

  23-09-2026 13:34 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Plans for a new London Overground railway in west London have moved forward, with the first public consultation now open.
  (c) TfL
  Transport for London (TfL) is running an eight-week consultation inviting feedback for the first time on proposals to create an 18.5km passenger route on rail lines currently used for rail freight across west and northwest London.
  If built, the West London Orbital (WLO) could run up to six trains an hour and provide ten new interchanges with rail and Underground
  
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• Westminster Abbey to display a memorial to J.R.R. Tolkien

  23-09-2026 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner will get a new resident next year, when a memorial to J.R.R. Tolkien is unveiled to mark the 90th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit.
  The Tree of Amalion, 1928 (c) Tolkien Trust, 1978
  The new memorial has been inspired by Tolkien’s Tree of Tales, which he called the Tree of Amalion. Featuring the imagery of a tree in a forest as its central theme, it will be a significant new artwork for the Abbey, inlaid vertically within a stone pil
  
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• New step-free Tube entrance opens at King’s Cross St Pancras station

  23-09-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  King’s Cross St Pancras tube station has gained a new step-free entrance, replacing two staircases that used to block the pavement.The station’s main entrances are on the north side of Euston Road, on the same side as the mainline railway stations, but it also has a subway under the road to the south side. However, that subway ended in two staircases that lacked lifts and also obstructed half the pavement, creating a well-known bottleneck for pedestrians.
  The old entrance in March 20
  
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• Airtel Money poised to launch one of London’s biggest IPOs in recent years

  22-09-2026 19:24 via ft.com
  African mobile payments group to file paperwork as early as this week as it looks to raise $800mn at $8bn-$9bn valuation
  
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• TfL’s cycle hire scheme offering half-price monthly subscriptions

  22-09-2026 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  TfL’s Santander Cycles hire scheme is offering new subscribers half-price monthly subscriptions.For the next few days, new customers can purchase a Santander Cycles Monthly Pass for just £10, reduced from the usual £20.
  The Monthly Pass includes unlimited 60-minute rides using the cycle hire bikes – so is a lot cheaper than the dockless hire bikes. And they don’t clog up the pavements.
  Additional charges apply for rides lasting longer than 60 minutes. E-bike hires c
  
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• Southwark Cathedral offers local artists free exhibition space

  22-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Artists across much of South London are being offered a free opportunity to exhibit their work inside Southwark Cathedral’s café next year.
  (c) Southwark Cathedral
  Southwark Cathedral says that it will dedicate its café exhibition programme in 2027 to the work of artists with a connection to the Diocese of Southwark – which is a much larger area than you might expect.
  The Diocese of Southwark covers South London and East Surrey, including communities across Southwark, L
  
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• Tickets Alert: Talk and tour of the Bank of England building

  22-09-2026 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Next month, the Bank of England will host art history talks focused on its rich interior design, and they will include tours of the bank itself. Tours inside the bank are quite rare, so this is a chance to see inside a building you wouldn’t usually be allowed to.Boris Anrep’s Mosaics at the Bank of England
  Tuesday 6th October – 1pm to 2pm
  Boris Anrep’s extraordinary mosaics for the Bank of England are a vibrant and deeply symbolic work of art and craftsmanship across the
  
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